Prosecutor: Mom helped son kill in motel

SANTA ANA – A lonely, desperate and sad 48-year-old mother of seven watched her son kill a man she brought to their Buena Park motel room in December 2008, a defense attorney told a jury Tuesday.

But Leticia Carrasco, now 52, didn't plan the slaying of Matias Ojeda Vazquez, Deputy Alternate Defender Laura Jose said in her opening statement of a murder trial.

Instead, Carrasco implored her adult son Noel Carrasco not to hurt the victim and to just take his money, Jose said.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons, however, contended in his opening statement that Leticia and Noel Carrasco killed Vazquez in the Covered Wagon Motel, and then dumped the victim's body off I-15 near Yermo on their way to Las Vegas.

Leticia Carrasco was arrested in Las Vegas about three weeks after the slaying. She had Vazquez's missing Honda Accord and told Orange police detectives where they could find Vasquez's body, Simmons said.

She is charged with murder, robbery and special circumstance that could lead to a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Noel Carrasco, now 26, is scheduled to stand trial separately on similar charges in March.

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